American tech giant Amazon (AMZN) is doubling down on its robotaxi startup, Zoox, aiming to expand its fleet production for commercial services across the U.S. The self-driving company is set to open a second manufacturing facility in California’s Bay Area to ramp up production. Currently, Zoox operates about 24 test robotaxis across six U.S. cities and has manufacturing operations at a small facility in Fremont. The news was first reported by the Financial Times, citing interview with Zoox co-founder Jesse Levinson.
Zoox’s short-term goals include launching commercial public rides in Las Vegas this year, followed by San Francisco in 2026. Levinson said that the company seeks to begin serial production of its pod-shaped robotaxis next year, once the new site is fully functional.
Zoox’s “Made in America” Strategy Gives a Competitive Edge
President Donald Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on imports from China. At the same time, he plans to relax regulations related to robotaxi deployment in the U.S. to mitigate competition from Chinese rivals such as BYD (BYDDF). These moves could act as a major driving factor for American self-driving ambitions.
In the meantime, Zoox competes with the larger rival Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Waymo in the U.S., which has successfully deployed a full-fledged public robotaxi service. Having said that, Levinson believes that Zoox’s “Made in America” strategy provides a big advantage for the automaker. Importantly, Waymo modifies and assembles its robotaxis from automakers Jaguar, China’s Zeekr, and Elon Musk’s Tesla (TSLA), and is poised to attract higher input costs due to the new tariffs.
Competition in the robotaxi space is intensifying rapidly. Tesla is also working on its own autonomous robotaxi called Cybercab. Meanwhile, legacy carmaker General Motors (GM) has already abandoned its self-driving unit, Cruise, last year following a pedestrian accident and a $10 billion write off.
Unfortunately, one of Zoox’s robotaxis collided with a passenger vehicle in Las Vegas last month, causing minimal damage. The company has voluntarily recalled 270 autos with the U.S. agency for updating the software.
Is Amazon Stock a Buy, Hold, or Sell?
On TipRanks, AMZN stock has a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 48 Buys and one Hold rating. Also, the average Amazon.com price target of $241.59 implies 30.6% upside potential from current levels. Year-to-date, AMZN stock has lost 15.7%.
